Bring the Pain
by AtLoLevad
Summary: Jo suddenly gets sick and it's not clear what's wrong with her. Alex can't help but be reminded of the last time someone he loved was sick.


Jo coughed harshly into her elbow, wheezing for a few minutes after the spell passed.

"You okay?" Alex asked, his forehead creased in concern. His fork was dangling from his hand, suspended in mid-air, where it stopped when Jo started coughing.

She nodded, eyes watering a little. After a sip of water, she said, "I had a tickle. Like something was caught in my throat. It's gone now."

Alex wasn't entirely convinced, but he didn't bug Jo further. He dug back into his pasta, making a mental note to keep an eye on Jo's 'tickle'. The way the cough had sounded, there seemed to be something else there. Something that could potentially become bad.

"Alex?" Jo snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Hello? Earth to Alex!"

He startled. "Sorry. What were you saying?"

Jo rolled her eyes, a teasing smirk on her face, "I was _saying_ , we have to pick up a birthday gift for Ellis. Any ideas?"

"She's into all that art crap now," Alex shrugged dismissively, "We'll get her some of that."

"Art supplies," Jo nodded, digging back into her pasta, "I'll pick some up on my break tomorrow."

She rubbed the fingers of her free hand into her temple, but waved Alex off when he asked her what was wrong.

Mildly concerned, Alex dropped his fork and grinned. "I know what relieves headaches."

"Seriously?" Jo laughed.

"Seriously," Alex replied, waggling his eyebrows at her. Jo thought for a minute and took another bite of pasta.

Off of Alex's questioning look, she smirked, "Gotta carb-load before strenuous cardio."

Jumping up from his chair and grabbing Jo around the waist, Alex laughed loudly and pressed sloppy kisses to her neck. They fell onto the bed, tangled together and kissing happily.

* * *

"Hey, what's going on?" Alex asked, finding Jo prone on a bed in an on-call room. "Mer said you ran out of the OR and blew chunks."

Jo, eyes still shut and face pale, turned her face in the general direction of Alex's voice, "I'm not pregnant, if that's what you're wondering."

He hadn't been, actually, but it wouldn't necessarily have been a bad development. Alex shook thoughts of a pregnant Jo from his mind and sat on the edge of the mattress.

"Still feeling nauseous? Want some coke?" he reached out to feel her forehead with the back of his hand as if she were one of his kids up in Peds. She was warm, but nothing too abnormal.

"No," she murmured quietly, her voice a little hoarse. She wrinkled her nose, "Maybe a piece of gum though? I have vomit mouth."

Alex laughed a little. "Yeah, I can find you some gum."

"Thanks," Jo smiled weakly. Alex dropped a kiss to her forehead and wrinkled his nose at the heat coming off of her.

"Think you can hold in for another two hours? I'll bring you home when my shift's done."

Jo hummed and rolled a little onto her side, tucking both hands under her cheek. Alex sat on the mattress for another few minutes, waiting until Jo's breathing evened out. He knew she'd be passed out for at least an hour; her M.O. after throwing up was to nap. He pulled the blanket up over her body, even though she was a little warm.

Something was up and it worried Alex. He couldn't help but be reminded of Izzie's cagey attitude around her tumor. Jo wasn't necessarily hiding something, but she didn't seem to be worried about the various symptoms Alex had noticed.

He headed back up to Peds, his mind still focused on Jo.

* * *

Jo was much better by the time Alex finished his shift. He gathered her up and they went back to the loft where a pizza was ordered and they curled up on the couch.

"Oh!" Jo gasped about halfway through the movie they were watching.

Alex jumped. "What is it? Are you okay? Do we need to go to the hospital?"

His hands were all over Jo's body, and not in a sexual way. She grumbled as he probed her stomach, looking for abnormalities. She swatted his hand away.

"Stop it, Alex! I told you, I feel fine!" She reminded him.

"Then what's with the gasping?" He snapped, eyes narrowed.

"I forgot to run out to get Ellis' gift," she shook her head. "I meant to go at lunch, but Arizona and I got to talking and it just blew my mind."

Alex rolled his eyes, "That's what you freaked me out about? Forgetting the stupid gift? Jesus, Jo, I thought you were dying."

"Dying?" Jo looked worried. "Alex, I have a cold or a virus or something. I'm not dying."

She reached out to squeeze his hand, "You're so not getting rid of me that eas-" Her sentence broke off into a coughing fit. Alex rubbed her back as his eyebrows creased together.

"You were saying?" He raised a sarcastic eyebrow even as he let Jo wipe her watery eyes on his t-shirt.

"I'm _fine_ , Alex," Jo said vehemently, her cracking voice proving a good counter-argument to her words.

"Yeah, okay," Alex said disbelievingly. "You're getting a blood test tomorrow. I want to make sure you get antibiotics if you need them."

"And when you're proven wrong," Jo said, eyes light and teasing, "I want breakfast in bed."

"Yeah, we'll see," Alex chuckled. He snatched another slice of pizza from the box and leaned back on the couch, trying to ignore the nagging worry at the back of his mind.

* * *

As it happened, both Alex and Jo got too busy the next day for either one to think about getting Jo a blood test. Alex bounced from bed to bed, checking on patients and working through lunch on two different surgeries. He barely had a minute to breathe.

He was working on a 7-year-old's perforated bowel when the nurse came up to him.

"Dr. Karev..."

He cut her off, "I don't have time. I'm in a precarious spot."

"It's Dr. Grey..."

Alex rolled his eyes and huffed a frustrated sigh under his mask, "Whatever Mer needs can wait. Tell her to take a fucking pill."

The nurse, young and not used to Alex's outbursts, jolted backwards. She bit her lip and mumbled, "She said it was about Dr. Wilson."

Alex nearly dropped his scalpel. He whirled on his heel and demanded, "Is she okay? What happened?"

The nurse shook her head, eyes wide, "She didn't say. Just that you should call her as soon as possible."

Alex grunted and turned to a different nurse, "Page Robbins. Tell her I need her to cover this surgery ASAP."

He worked impatiently, but carefully on the bowel in the time it took Arizona to come into the OR.

Her forehead creased in worry and confusion and tying on her mask, Arizona asked, "What's wrong, Alex? You've done a thousand perfs?"

"It's Jo," Alex said shortly, passing over the scalpel and practically running out of the OR. Arizona sighed and turned to the patient. She really hoped everything was okay.

Meredith and Amelia cut Alex off before he could burst into the room he had been directed to.

"Cut it out," he growled, struggling against their arms.

"Christ, Karev," Amelia grunted, ducking a flying fist. "Let us explain."

"Explain what? Jo's in there and I want to see her," Alex snapped, but he stopped fighting them.

Meredith kept a hand on his chest, keeping him from barreling right into the room. "Jo's okay, for now. She fainted."

"What?"

"She was walking with me," Amelia said, eyes wide. "We were talking about a patient she was working on and all of a sudden she just stopped taking and went down."

"Down?" Alex repeated dumbly.

"Yeah," Amelia nodded. "I paged Mer and we got her onto a gurney and she woke up, real groggy. We got her into the room and she started sobbing."

Alex raised a worried eyebrow. He gestured impatiently for Amelia to continue.

Instead Meredith spoke up, "Muscle pains. She was sobbing about her whole body hurting. I gave her morphine and she's asleep now."

Alex pinched the bridge of his nose, "What's wrong with her? It's not..." His voice caught in his throat. He couldn't say 'tumor' out loud, that would make it real, that would mean his life was falling apart all over again.

Amelia looked at Meredith, confused by Alex's scared expression. Meredith reached out and squeezed Alex's forearm.

"This is not Izzie 2.0, Alex. Amelia is going to do a full brain scan and I'm going to run a full blood work up. Whatever it is, we're going to make sure Jo's fine," she said calmly and firmly. Alex chuckled lightly because she was using her Mom Voice.

"Now, go get something to eat," Meredith commanded warmly. "I know you've been going all day and you're no help to Jo if you pass out too."

He nodded reluctantly and turned down the hallway. A few feet away, he turned back and gave Meredith and Amelia a small smile. "Thanks, guys. I appreciate your concern."

* * *

Jo's brain scan came up clear and so did the blood panel.

Her muscle pain was kept at bay by a morphine drip and her cough only got worse.

"What's wrong with me Alex?" Jo mumbled, her eyes drifting shut. The constant coughing and pain had exhausted her rapidly. Alex held her hand, fingers looped with hers.

"We'll figure it out, Jo. You're gonna be fine," he said firmly. But his voice caught on the word 'fine' and he clenched his jaw. He blinked harshly against angry tears, thinking about Izzie.

They'd checked for everything, but her symptoms were so weird. It made Alex miss Lexi and her photographic memory. She could've come up with a diagnosis real quick. Instead they were stuck in limbo, unable to help Jo because they didn't know what they were dealing with. He felt like a complete fuck up, as a doctor and as a boyfriend.

"I trust you," Jo mumbled on a sigh, falling asleep. Alex sucked in a deep breath and released her hand. He knew she only had an hour at most before she vomited or cried out in pain again. He wanted her to sleep as long as possible.

Meredith appeared at the glass doors to Jo's room and waved for Alex to come into the hallway. He reluctantly left Jo's side.

"What is it?" He asked tiredly. He hadn't really slept since Jo's admittance. He had called off his shifts too.

Meredith had a smile on her face as she excitedly told Alex, "Legionnaire's disease!"

"What?" Alex frowned.

"Jo has Legionnaire's disease," Meredith clarified. "April figured it out."

"Kepner?" Alex was having trouble keeping up. "And isn't Legionnaire's disease the one you get from gross water?"

Meredith rolled her eyes, "Yes, Alex. It's the one you get from gross water. We're not sure exactly how Jo caught it, but April remembered that a patient came in with Jo's same symptoms less than a week after Jo treated him. She and Hunt ran a sputum test for whatever reason and it came up positive."

"So you ran the same test on Jo, and hers was positive too," Alex finished, looking more positive than he had in days.

Meredith was nodding as Alex spoke. "We'll start her on azithromycin within the hour."

Alex's whole body sagged in relief, "And she'll be fine?"

"One hundred percent," Meredith smiled, squeezing Alex's arm. "Go on and sit with her."

Meredith watched as one of her people shot her a grateful smile and practically sprinted back to sit at Jo's bedside. His hand rested just next to Jo's so he wouldn't wake her up. Meredith turned quietly when Alex's shoulders started to shake a little. She knew Jo's mystery illness had been really difficult on him, shades of Izzie at every turn.

Jo woke up a few minutes later, a coughing spasm jolting her from an uncomfortable sleep. Her eyes went wide at the effort of coughing and Alex propped her up so she didn't choke. Once the spell subsided, Jo slumped against Alex's arm.

"Hey," he whispered, rubbing his hands up and down her cold arms.

"Hey," she whispered back, still leaning heavily against him.

"Kep figured out what you have," he said quietly. "They're gonna pump you full of antibiotics and you're gonna be fine."

Jo perked up a little, humming her excitement. "Hm? Really? That's good."

"Do you want to know what it is?" Alex asked gently.

"Nah," Jo yawned, "just glad I'm not going to leave you."

Alex laughed nervously and pushed Jo's sweaty hair away from her forehead. He pressed a lingering kiss to the crown of her head.

"I'm glad too."

* * *

 _A/N: Wow, I haven't written any Jolex in a while and I'm sorry about that. This has been perking for a while, since it's based on a prompt 'aspoonfuloffiction' sent me on Tumblr aagges ago._

 _It's probably a little out of character, but I'm happy with it. I hope you guys enjoy it and leave me a review letting me know what you think! :)_


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